Impressive New Model Photos

Appalachian Railroad Modeling welcomes a new contributor, Fred Lagno. If Fred’s excellent work looks familiar, it’s because it’s been featured in Model Railroad Planning and NMRA calendars. Fred’s eye for detail, excellent scenery and photography style lend a realism to his scenes and models that all of us can learn from. To see more of Fred’s work, see the Chessie models page.

Scratchbuilt truck-dump loader by Tom Patterson

Tom Patterson has shared more photos of one of his incredible scratchbuilt loaders. This truck dump, named Harney No 2 on Tom’s layout, is representative of the hundreds of these little operations that dotted the lines of Appalachian coal hauling railroads. While Tom’s railroad is freelanced, he studied dozens of prototype tipples to create his design for this loader, and this study shows in the details and realism of the scene. To see more of Tom’s work, see the structure models page.

Clinchfield modeler Brent Johnson is back with more models to cover his Kingsport, TN modeling interest. This is a photo of Brent’s incredible model of a CRR ice-breaker car. These cars were pushed ahead of trains in the winter to remove icicles from the Clinchfield’s many tunnels before they could damage locomotive horns and other expensive parts of rolling stock. Brent started with a Proto 2000 kit but scratchbuilt the impressive structure of the ice breaker. Also new are some of Brent’s covered hoppers for the Eastman Chemical company located at Kingsport. While these aren’t exactly CRR cars, they were an integral part of Clinchfield operations in this area and deserve a spot alongside the coal hoppers and locomotives typically showcased on Appalachian Railroad Modeling. To see more of Brent’s work, see the CRR models page.

Now that the new website is complete, I’m going back and including many of the photos contributors have sent over the past year. Thanks for your patience, contributors, and please keep those photos coming! Remember, anyone with photos, models or information relevant to this site can become an Appalachian Railroad Modeling contributor, so what are you waiting for?